The Dirty Doll
“So now you’re going to pick at that too, Lee Yu-kyeong?”
He’s saying he hit the kid because he needed to check the situation.
So he’d hurt the boy because if he’d complained after exercising, he might have been found out?
God. That makes it worse.
A sigh escaped me before I could stop it. I said nothing and pulled Ma Jeok into my arms, patting him on the back.
“You must have been in pain. You put up with it well.”
Where exactly was there anything on this small kid worth hitting?
Just watching this was impossible.
I’m going to have to do something.
Ma Jeok stayed still in my arms. Honestly, he was so big that it felt more like I was buried in him than holding him.
“Teacher!”
“Hnkh. Yes.”
Ah, he was crying again.
“For now, don’t cry.”
“Hngh. Yes.”
I told him, but I knew he wouldn’t listen. I kept patting his back and said, “Still, let’s take photos.”
“Why?”
“Even if we can’t file a report, evidence can be useful someday.”
The more, the better when it came to this sort of thing.
Besides.
Even if public authority couldn’t crush Lee Yu-kyeong, that didn’t mean there was nothing else to do.
Thinking about it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
The law really does discriminate, damn it.
If everyone were equal under the law, the world would be a utopia. What a joke.
Ma Jeok nodded. I let him go. Deoksu, with tears in his eyes, took photos and applied the medicine.
I folded my arms and sank into thought.
If I leave this alone, it’s going to end badly.
I took a slow breath. If I hadn’t known, maybe I could have let it slide. But now that I did, there was no way I could simply ignore it.
If there’s anything I can do, then it has to be coins, right?
I looked at Ma Jeok. He was trying to act tough, but tears had dried at the corners of his eyes.
If I leave him like this, I’m no different from Lee Yu-kyeong.
It was a shame, but there was nothing else to it.
Show me the number of coins!
The subtitle moved at once.
Total Coins: 343,241.98
Even without much activity, I’d somehow accumulated quite a lot.
Is that because of the Hallyu wave?
Even with decimals, the sheer number of people still mattered most.
At this rate, maybe I can keep Ma Jeok from getting hurt.
I shook my head almost immediately.
Coin counts are so fickle they’re basically boiling porridge.
First, I needed to check.
Coin use! Tell me the cost and number of coins needed to keep Lee Yu-kyeong’s violence from reaching Ma Jeok.
20 coins will be consumed to determine the cost.
Football Prodigy: 382,387,492,837 coins are required to block all of Lee Yu-kyeong’s violence against Ma Jeok.
The cost is five years of sleep.
I pressed a hand to my forehead.
That’s incredible.
How was I supposed to gather that much? No, more importantly, the price was brutal.
That means I’d be in a coma for five years.
That was terrifying.
This won’t work.
What else was there?
I stared at the subtitles, lost in thought. Then five words stood out all at once.
Football prodigy?
I looked at Ma Jeok for a long moment.
Come to think of it, he said he was doing soccer.
Was he actually good at it? So he was the type who could make up for things with his body.
It makes me think of Noah.
The kid I’d spent time with back in the orphanage. I wondered how he was doing now. He had probably forgotten me by now.
It’d be better to strengthen his body more broadly.
I muttered inwardly at once.
Coin use! Tell me the cost and number of coins needed to raise Ma Jeok’s dodging ability.
20 coins will be consumed to determine the cost.
Football Prodigy: 4,872 coins are required to raise Ma Jeok’s dodging ability.
The cost is five minutes of cold sweat.
Huh. That’s all it took?
What is this?
Was his physical ability far better than I’d thought?
Is he basically a genius?
The cost was light enough that there was no reason not to use it.
Execute it!
The subtitle rose again.
It will be executed in 3 seconds.
I felt a little relieved.
He should get hit less now.
At the very least, he’d avoid anything fatal.
No. If I let my guard down and he gets hit wrong, that could still be a disaster.
I folded my arms and fell back into thought.
If it’s that cheap, maybe I should do a bit more.
Coin use! Tell me the cost and number of coins needed to raise Ma Jeok’s violence detection ability.
20 coins will be consumed to determine the cost.
Football Prodigy: 5,072 coins are required to raise Ma Jeok’s violence detection ability.
The cost is five minutes of itching all over the body.
Wow. Ma Jeok really does seem born to use his body.
I’d never expected it to be this cheap.
I executed it right away.
It will be executed in 3 seconds.
Now I could relax. I lightly tapped Ma Jeok on the shoulder.
“Hey, Ma Jeok?”
“Y-yeah. What is it?”
“You should thank me.”
Ma Jeok blinked. I grinned and said, “From now on, things will be fine.”
I clenched and opened my hand. A prickling itch ran all over my body.
Whoa. This is no joke.
It itched so badly that my sweat-drenched back kept twitching. I barely held myself back from rolling around on the floor.
Should I go outside and wriggle around for a bit?
Only five minutes. I could endure that much.
Ma Jeok, still not understanding what was going on, scratched the side of his nose a little.
“Uh, thanks.”
Huh.
He’d thank me so readily?
Maybe his heart had opened up a little after all the times I’d helped him.
“From now on, if that woman tries to hit you, just run. Hmm, but were you always getting hit this often?”
Ma Jeok shook his head.
“No. It wasn’t this bad. But lately, I’ve been weird.”
What did he mean?
“I keep saying things honestly.”
Huh.
“Even when I try not to, I just keep doing it.”
This was...
I used a coin.
Cold sweat broke out on my back all over again.
Damn it.
I wiped my dry face and said, “Ma Jeok.”
“Yeah?”
“Sorry. I’m really sorry.”
I hadn’t known it would create this kind of synergy.
“For what?”
“Just... for everything.”
I was one of the reasons he was hurting.
I dropped into a crouch at once. I was so sorry that I even forgot about the itching.
“Why are you like that?”
I couldn’t lift my head. I took a deep breath.
“Listen, Ma Jeok.”
“Yeah?”
“Later, you can hit me ten times and stomp on me once. But before that.”
I covered my face with both hands and said, “I’ll do anything I can. So you tell me too.”
I’ll listen to everything.
Damn it. This is why people should live properly.
The guilt was no joke.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Except for a guarantee.”
No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t give him that.
Then I heard Ma Jeok’s laughter.
“Kahahahahaha!”
I looked up. The kid was the one who’d been hit more because of me, and yet he was laughing brightly, as if he had no idea.
This won’t do.
I stood up at once, then grabbed his hand tightly.
“I’ll take responsibility for you.”
“Huh?”
“Rely on me! I’ll be your big brother!”
I’m the kind of guy who means what he says, Ma Jeok.
I don’t make confessions like this lightly!
I’ll take responsibility for you!
Ma Jeok’s eyes trembled. He was just about to say something when, all of a sudden, I heard someone nearby trying not to laugh.
“Pfft.”
I didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was. Narrowing my eyes, I said, “Teacher, I’m being serious.”
“Kuk, pfft!”
Ah, damn it.
I let out a long sigh and shook my head.
Come to think of it, a speech like this probably shouldn’t have an audience.
Deoksu had turned away, one hand clamped over his mouth. I exhaled slowly and said, “Just laugh.”
“Puhahahahahaha!”
I’m losing my mind.
I took Ma Jeok’s hand, now that his treatment was finished.
“What did you eat today?”
“Huh? Nothing?”
“Did that woman starve you?”
“I got hit while I was eating...”
Wow. Even dogs aren’t bothered while they’re eating. That was too much.
I dragged him to the refrigerator.
“Let’s eat whatever you want.”
Our fridge is well stocked. Just trust your brother.
We were about halfway across the living room when Ma Jeok muttered, “Um... but aren’t I the older brother?”
Ah.
Right. He is.
I’d forgotten because the kid had suffered so much.
I gave an awkward smile. Ma Jeok, following my lead, broke into a bright grin.
* * *
I need to feel responsible.
There was one more mouth to feed now.
Well, adding Ma Jeok to the family probably won’t bankrupt us.
My mother wasn’t a third-generation chaebol for nothing. Honestly, I was eating and dressing too well already.
Still, I said I’d take responsibility.
I had to make sure he was properly looked after and helped him grow.
I closed the script. The noise on set sounded especially pleasant today.
Then I heard a clear voice.
“Gongza, hello.”
I turned and waved.
“Hello!”
“You’re cute today too. Son, this scene should be hard to shoot. Are you okay?”
I nodded hard.
Just as Jung Yu-jin had said, this was a scene that required a great deal of acting.
We’re shooting a scene that really needs acting today.
Honestly, it was the kind of scene that drained you dry.
I heard they’re doing it in one take.
I took a quiet breath. To be honest, if possible, it was best to finish something like this in a single go.
But that won’t happen, will it?
A draining scene like this couldn’t be completed in one take through my effort alone.
I need luck.
No matter how well I did, if anything went wrong, we’d have to do it again.
The actors have to match well too.
And rehearsal mattered.
I spread my hands and stretched. Maybe because I was in a child’s body, I could stretch surprisingly well.
Jung Yu-jin, who’d been watching me, said, “Ah, I should stretch too.”
She stood and stretched her arms too. I laughed and said, “I’m excited!”
“Hmm? About what?”
“About acting with such a great senior!”
I wasn’t just saying that.
Working with actress Jung Yu-jin was, honestly, wonderful.
Our chemistry is great.
She was absolutely perfect as my mother. I’d nearly forgotten who had played the role before.
“Wow, I got praised by Gongza.”
As she stretched, Jung Yu-jin pressed firmly at my back. I kept doing my warm-up, giggling.
“Same here. Honestly, I was really looking forward to this role. The casting was going right down to the wire, too. I wanted to do well, and look what I found here, my lucky four-leaf clover?”
Wow.
I smiled brightly and asked, “Am I the four-leaf clover?”
“Yes. From the script reading to the first shoot, I’ve been completely out of my mind.”
That was an incredible compliment.
Well, I am pretty good.
I looked around. The staff were busily preparing the shoot.
Then the costume manager came running over.
“Gongza, let me see you again. Hmm... there’s just one flaw.”
No, what? What was it?
I blinked in surprise, and Jung Yu-jin said, “Right. A big flaw.”
“You feel it too, Jung Yu-jin?”
“Every time I act, I feel it.”
No, what is it? Just a moment ago you were calling me a four-leaf clover!
The two of them said at the same time, “He’s too clean.”
Ah.
I get it.
I lifted the edge of my costume slightly. It was always the same shabby, worn-out T-shirt.
When he’s trapped in the basement, this is the kind of thing he wears.
And he was always barefoot, too.
“There’s soot on his face as well.”
“His clothes are rags.”
“But maybe because the kid looks like a little piece of art, he just looks like a dirty doll.”
Then a low voice cut in.
“He doesn’t really look like a kid who lived in a basement. I was even thinking about whether I should get soot on his teeth.”
It was Director Rhy-lac. Jung Yu-jin shook her head hard.
“If you do that to a face like his, Director, you’re in trouble.”
“Wouldn’t the audience forgive it if it were only through the middle portion?”
“How are they supposed to forgive that? Look, just look.”
In an instant, the three of them stared at me. In response, I gave them a bright, fresh smile.
Then all three said at once, “No good.”
“No, it won’t do.”
“It’s better to make use of his looks.”